Things not to bring camping

Last weekend we were all very excited to head to the coast for more camping with friends. It was a walk-in campground so we had to lug all our children and gear a few hundred metres. We felt good that we have a fairly lean camping kit. Especially by Australian standards. We stared in awe as our neighbours spent a few hours bringing things to their campsite - beds, beers, pots and even crazy things like a shelving unit. I am sure they thought we seemed equally absurd as we crouched in the dirt over our backpacking stove. There was one thing we brought along though that I now know was completely unnecessary: the stomach flu. 

Sophia felt a little sick after the car ride and went right into the tent where she fell asleep. She woke up a couple of hours later long enough to sit up lean over and throw up all over herself, her sleeping bag, her sleeping pad and the sleeping pads of her sisters. And so the night went with Sophia vomiting with Olympic reach. Vomiting illness are no fun but that night we learned that they are even less fun when you are all sleeping in a small tent at a campsite that has no water source and no bathroom and anything in the car means a twenty minute walk. Thankfully I had six wipes and a handkerchief and am a creative person. Probably come morning we should have packed up and left but there was a beach and sometimes these things pass quickly. Except this time it didn't but the beach was lovely. 

I have spent the week at home with an endless rotation of different children vomiting or being sick. It's made me feel both stir crazy and incredibly sympathetic to stomach flus in families with even more children. I now know that even though it doesn't weigh much, illness is not a nice thing to bring camping.

Aurora fans the flames

So cute it could make you sick